Widely considered one of the finest speakers on classical music, San Diego Symphony Special Project Director, Nuvi Mehta, has a gift for capturing minds and hearts. The L.A. Times likens him to a young Gary Cooper, saying, “… His old-fashioned Hollywood charisma extends to an eloquent and theatrical way of speaking that is almost entirely lost today.” Mehta’s multi-media Symphony Exposé concert series, combining drama and education with symphonic music is building a new generation of classical music lovers. His on stage demonstrations and pre show talks, drawing up to 1000 patrons a night, are a feature of all San Diego Symphony Masterworks Series concerts.

Appointed Artistic Director of the Ventura Music Festival Association in 2004, Mehta expanded the range of festival concerts, adding community outreach, On-Stage Talks and Up-Close events with guest artists. The Ventura Music Festival now presents the most illustrious artists in the world of Classical music, Jazz and Crossover.

Conducting appearances have taken Mehta across the United States, to Europe and to Mexico. He has been a guest of San Diego Symphony, the New World Symphony, Knoxville Symphony, the Fine Arts Chamber Orchestra of Mexico City and San Diego Chamber Orchestra as well as Music Director of the Nova Vista and Marquette Symphonies and the International Russian Music Piano Competition. As a violinist he has appeared as soloist with the San Diego Symphony, Marquette Symphony, the Ann Arbor Symphony, San Diego Chamber Orchestra, the American Youth Symphony and the New World Symphony.

Mehta carries his passion for music into classrooms, boardrooms and conventions, as well, regaling young and old alike with the stories, lives and techniques of history’s great composers.

A graduate of Indiana University and The Juilliard School, Mehta lives in San Diego with his wife Karen and daughter Kaia.